News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

Is launching on Product Hunt worth it?

There's so much out there on HOW to launch here on PH, but not so much of a discussion on whether it's worth the effort.

After our launch where we took #1 product of the day, I sat down to run an analysis on whether it was worth it or not:

‘Worth it’ is a relative term. For us it was, despite traffic, signups and purchases undershooting our expectations.

So why was it worth it?

The benefits to launching were:

1. 10,000+ eyeballs on our website and social media accounts. There’s something to be said for having a ‘launch’ day, Product Hunt or not. It galvanizes the team, friends and users around a specific event and so we received more shares, retweets and organic engagement than any other normal day. It’s important to note that most of these didn’t actually come through the Product Hunt launch, rather from the buzz we generated around it.

2. 300+ app downloads. On the two days spanning our launch (depending on time zone) we had over 300 app installs, which could easily cost $1500 at a $5 CPI.

3. 20 new subscribers. Our launch was among the first few days we shifted to a subscription model so while 20 subscriptions was less than what we had hoped for, it was still a good boost and the users who joined have been high quality engaged users.

So was our Product Hunt launch worth it? Given our cost of the ~70 hours we spent preparing the launch (and that we self produced all our creatives), then undoubtedly yes.

I Put all our findings, research and launch plan here:

https://www.alpeaudio.com/post/is-launching-on-product-hunt-worth-it-and-how-to-do-it

Curious to hear your thoughts on this topic!

( 5 comments | on HN )
Re:Is launching on Product Hunt worth it? by OJFord on Sunday August 08, 2021 @01:43PM (#28108532)
As a consumer, I take those '#1 on PH!!' badges as a negative signal, such pride over something so brief and meaningless, displaying it like it's the same as being declared X of the year by some major publication (not that there aren't problems with that too of course).

But obviously some large number of people use PH, and posting there is going to get some eyeballs and sign-ups just like posting on some relevant subreddits will. Just take it off your site, who cares.

Re:Is launching on Product Hunt worth it? by smt88 on Sunday August 08, 2021 @01:49PM (#28108583)
I also take it as a negative signal because it means the product is basically a half-baked MVP with tons of technical debt.
Re:Is launching on Product Hunt worth it? by steffs on Sunday August 08, 2021 @01:42PM (#28108523)
Great article. I'm curious, did you also post the startup on HN, and if you did, did you do it before or after PH?
Re:Is launching on Product Hunt worth it? by joshxyz on Sunday August 08, 2021 @11:21PM (#28112432)
thank you for this. looking to launch some project soon and ive been enjoying reading indiehackers abd producthunt lately.
Re:Is launching on Product Hunt worth it? by moneywoes on Sunday August 08, 2021 @01:38PM (#28108486)
It can't hurt